If you thought that the city had already gone barbecue crazy, just wait for Time Out Chicago’s massive barbecue roundup in this week’s issue. Instead of simply ranking the best in the city to try and start a spirited debate, à la Chicago Magazine, TOC has gone for the exhaustive overview by attempting to cover it all. Barbecue restaurants are broken down by category, so we get the best place for ribs and the best place for rib tips. Also, we get a couple of fascinating in-depth profiles from Mike Gebert about barbecue legends and the tools they use to smoke their food. The list is so comprehensive it’s kind of hard to find anything to nitpick. About the only bad thing we can say is that it’s almost too much–if there is such a thing as too much barbecue. Surely some will note the absence of Chicago’s grand old boiled rib joints like the Twin Anchors Restaurant, but Heather Shouse even covers why they weren’t included. [TOC]
